Arseniy Yatsenyuk in Odessa: We have to save country, to save unity. This requires a dialogue

"Those who represented the east and were in power for the last twelve years, had never started the dialogue on the decentralization and transfer of power to the regions, although the party was called one of "the regions", Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized on Sunday, May 4, in Odessa at a meeting with social, political, cultural and economic leaders from the region.

He stressed that the Government of Ukraine is moving towards the decentralization of power and transfer of powers to the territorial communities. For this purpose, according to him, we need changes to the Constitution: "The Government has clearly stated that we believe it is necessary to eliminate regional and district state administrations and go through the creation of executive committees."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk also underlined the necessary amendments to the Budget Code to provide the regions with appropriate financial resource: "Political decentralization must be accompanied by a budget one."

Regarding the language issue, the Prime Minister reminded that the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko Law on Languages is still valid. He noted that changes to the Constitution can provide “additional guarantees” as to the use of the Russian language and languages of national minorities, if corresponding councils take a decision about it."

"As part of our constitutional reform, we need not just to hold and complete the dialogue but to sign a draft Constitution by all political parties that neither the President nor the Prime Minister or Parliament shall not "create" a Constitution for themselves", Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed.

"We need to save the country, save the unity. We have to preserve each human life. It is our common task and sacred duty to the country and people," the Prime Minister added.